[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 52 (Thursday, April 15, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H2105]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  PEACE HAWKS--WITH EYES ON THE GROUND

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I came down to take this 5-minute special 
order because I read in the Washington Times this morning an excellent 
article by Elaine Donnelly that so aptly puts where we are today and 
puts things in perspective as it relates to Kosovo, that I wanted to 
come down to the floor and read it on the floor because it puts so well 
what I had been thinking. It goes like this, and I quote:
  ``As President Clinton continues the bombing campaign over Kosovo, 
confusion abounds. Former `doves' are cheering but traditional `hawks' 
appalled by Mr. Clinton's command blunders, don't know what to say. 
Concerned Americans want to support the troops, but they are flummoxed 
by a President who is misusing authority over them.
  ``To make sense of what is happening, it helps to recognize Mr. 
Clinton is not conducting a serious, traditional war. If he were, the 
first wave of NATO planes would have reduced the palace of Slobodan 
Milosevic, Rembrandt painting and all, to smoking smithereens.
  ``The Kosovo operation is different and oxymoronic. It is a `peace 
war' waged by `peace hawks' pursuing a dovish social agenda. Peace 
hawks are global idealists and former anti-war activists, including the 
youthful Bill Clinton, who used to `loathe' the military because it 
uses lethal force. Now that he is commander in chief, Mr. Clinton can 
use the troops for more virtuous purposes.
  ```Doing good' on a worldwide scale appeals to peace hawks, who are 
motivated by altruism, not patriotism. The sight of uniformed 
peacekeepers distributing food in faraway places makes their hearts 
sing. As columnist Paul Gigot wrote: `It's as if liberals feel better 
waging war when U.S. interests aren't at stake.'
  ``The Kosovo peace war is all about good intentions and grand social 
objectives. President Clinton said so in a speech before a public 
employees' union on March 23, rambling on about a vision of `diversity, 
community, belonging, and wanting our neighbors to do well,' the 
President rhapsodized, `This is why I devoted so much time,' quoting 
the President, `to that initiative on race and why I keep fighting for 
passage of the Hate Crimes legislation, the Employment 
Nondiscrimination, gay rights legislation, all these things, because I 
am telling you look all over the world--that's what Kosovo is about. 
People are still killing each other out of primitive urges because they 
think what is different about them is more important than what they 
have in common,''' close quote.
  ``Mr. Clinton conceded that the people of Yugoslavia had been 
battling off and on for hundreds of years, but exulting in his own 
enlightened insight, Mr. Clinton said, `It is an insult to them to say 
that somehow they were intrinsically made to murder one another.'
  ``Deriding those who would say, `They're just that way' to excuse 
violence in Northern Ireland or misbehavior among children, the 
President added, `Well, if every parent said that, the jails would be 
five times as big as they are. That's not true. I just don't believe 
that. And I know what happened in Bosnia, where we found the unity and 
the will to stand up against the aggression, and we helped to end the 
war. And later, to make sure the peace would last, we agreed to send 
troops in with our allies. And I think it was a good investment.'
  ``So there you have it--victory, as defined by Bill Clinton. Like a 
parent disciplining an unruly child, our peace-war commander in chief 
is saying to Kosovo, `Can't you just get along?' NATO is supposed to 
continue the bombing, in order to pacify warring factions in Serbia and 
Kosovo. The ultimate goal is to duplicate the edgy silence of Bosnia, 
and enforce it with NATO peacekeepers for years, perhaps for decades. 
This is the `it' we are `in', and there is no way Americans can win.
  ``The entire operation was conceived and launched by Secretary of 
State Madeleine Albright, who once said to General Colin Powell, then 
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, `What's the point of having this 
superb military that you're always talking about if we can't use it?' 
General Powell wrote in his autobiography that Mrs. Albright's 
outburst, made during a briefing on Bosnia, almost gave him an 
aneurysm. The general tried to explain that `American GIs are not toy 
soldiers to be moved around on some sort of global gameboard.'
  ``But Mrs. Albright is finally getting her way, despite reported 
warnings from the current Joint Chiefs of Staff. Once again uniformed 
leaders are being ordered to make war and peace simultaneously.''
  As the late Army Gen. Creighton Abrams, Vietnam-era Chief of Staff 
used to say, ``Fighting in the name of peace is like seeking virtue in 
a bordello.''
  It is time to start over, before a bad situation gets worse. The 
deployment of land troops for combat--daintily described by Mrs. 
Albright as a ``nonpermissive environment''--will not bring peace to a 
Kosovo that no longer exists. Why not follow the president's lead, and 
do something to make everyone feel better about the situation?
  There are lots of creative ways to achieve the president's stated 
goals--diversity, community and belonging--without passing bad 
legislation or needlessly putting combat soldiers at risk. For 
starters, Mr. Clinton's Hollywood friends could stage a remake of that 
memorable soft-drink commercial--the one featuring a hillside of 
children folk-singing about apple trees, honey bees, and buying the 
world a Coke.
  With help, Balkan refugees could participate in the production. 
Perhaps the International Monetary Fund could take the $5 billion loan 
that Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov recently passed up, and 
divert it to Albania and other neighboring countries that are willing 
to provide clean clothes, food, and safe, temporary housing.
  Forget the usual presidential photo-ops with deployed soldiers in 
fatigues. Let Bill Clinton risk his own neck for a change. To burnish 
his legacy, he could fly into Belgrade on an Apache helicopter, and 
play the saxophone at one of those rock concerts. Even with bulletproof 
glass, it would make a great picture for the history books--just like 
the ones of John F. Kennedy in Berlin and Ronald Reagan at the Wall.
  Then the belligerent Balkan leaders could be flown back to the White 
House for some friendly attitude adjustment. They could even shake 
hands in front of a beaming president, arms outstretched in a striking 
freeze frame that would make everyone feel good. So all together now . 
. . let's join hands, light a candle, and sing ``Kumbaya.'' We can win 
the peace war in Kosovo. Just keep our soldiers out of it.

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